If you asked me to sum up the last three months, there would be no shortage of negatives from which to draw—not least the global pandemic, the economy threatening to bottom out, and the dehumanizing death of yet another unarmed black man at the hands of the police. By any measure, 2020 has not been a good year. It seems every glimmer of bright news is immediately obliterated by some new crisis or horror.
And yet when I look back at all I have written in recent weeks, my themes and takeaways have been almost wholly positive. I’ve talked about the growing support for small businesses, the movement away from “me” toward “we,” and the return of the Cs: compassion, camaraderie, and community.
It has been just over two weeks since the Memorial Day murder of George Floyd, a horrific and callous act. The Minneapolis protests that followed were not unexpected. We have seen them again and again—in the wake of the deaths of Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner, Michael Brown, Tamir Rice, Freddie Gray, Sandra Bland, Alton Sterling, Philando Castile, and so many others. And we have seen virtually no change as a result.
This time holds promise of being different. This time it seems as though we may actually realize some measure of meaningful change. I don’t know whether that is because of how painful it was to watch a man’s life taken away over an excruciatingly long 8 minutes and 46 seconds, because it followed so quickly on the heels of the killings of Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor—or because the pandemic and shutdowns have served to put society into a different frame of mind. We are seeing protests over the killing and racial injustice not just in the U.S. but across the globe. People are enraged.
Maybe this crisis really has changed us. Maybe we have had enough of an interruption of life-as-usual to stop and consider just how dissatisfied we are with the state of the world and our local communities. Maybe we are finally ready to fight for the better world we crave.
My background is in marketing, and so I am always conscious of how companies and brands are behaving. It seems offensive to discuss marketing in the context of the above, and yet I wholly believe that businesses will be among the most impactful drivers of change. In recent days, we have seen myriad CEOs speak out and step up to begin to address the issues of systemic racism and injustice. And, for once, it doesn’t all seem like empty platitudes. Bank of America has committed to investing $1 billion and four years of support in communities of color and minority-owned businesses, with an emphasis on housing, health, and jobs and training. During a Sustainable Brands Leadership Summit, Target CMO Rick Gomez noted that he had been tempted to hire a local artist to create a mural to beautify the Twin Cities store that had been boarded up after being looted and burned during the protests. Instead, he listened when Target’s vice president of corporate responsibility, Amanda Nusz, challenged him to consider instead what the community needed. And so the company filled trucks with diapers, first aid kits, baby formula, bottled water, and more to ensure the communities hardest hit by the protests were not cut off from essential supplies. That was on top of other initiatives, including investing $10 million in the National Urban League, the African American Leadership Forum, and other partnerships; providing 10,000 hours of pro bono consulting services to minority-owned small businesses; and amending the company’s loyalty program to give customers the option of directing company funds to organizations supporting social justice.
I have been struck, too, by how quickly smaller businesses have found ways to serve as allies in the fight for racial justice. I think part of the agility they are showing stems from their having been forced to pivot and innovate during the COVID-19 shutdown. Los Angeles-based Finli, for instance, is a startup that makes it easier for parents to pay family-centric small businesses (think: tai chi and ballet studios, piano teachers, etc.). When the pandemic shuttered doors, the company pivoted to help these community businesses move their services online. Founder Lori Shao explained: “Many of our instructors teaching on Finli Classes have never taught online; they are not influencers and are not well versed to compete on the digital stage. The idea of creating and maintaining a webpage, acquiring customers digitally, managing online scheduling/booking, collecting tuition from anyone anywhere, down to writing their own bio, are among the top barriers to entry. Through Finli, those barriers are removed.” Now, the startup is pivoting again, raising and distributing grant money to support black-owned businesses. “Finli went from a very-good-to-have vitamin to a must-have painkiller through our first pivot,” said Shao. “Now, we will continue to focus on solving the biggest challenges our clients face.”
The systemic ills we face as a society are not going to be healed overnight—or even this decade. But marketers and businesses of all sizes can help us advance in the right direction. People seem more energized now to solve problems we once considered insurmountable. They seem more focused on what needs to change and more determined to play a part in bringing about that progress. Maybe it’s because we have all been living under an existential threat these past several months. Maybe it’s because we recognize that this threat hangs over people of color all the time—not just during the pandemic (although people of color are harder hit by that, too).
Whatever the cause, this terrible, horrible, no good, very bad year we are all experiencing may prove to be a turning point as people and brands figure out ways to use their collective voices, platforms, and power to demand better.
